■"Bolivia Presents Energy Risk: Unsettled Business Climate Spurs Neighbors to Seek Fuel Alternatives," by Matt Moffett, Wall Street Journal, 31 May 2005, p. A14.

■"China and Japan To Keep Talking In Gas Dispute," by Matt Pottinger, Wall Street Journal, 1 June 2005, p. A18.

■"When Betting on Russia, Kremlin Is the Wild Card: The government plays kingmaker and investment foil," by Erin E. Arvedlund, New York Times, 2 June 2005, p. A1.

For Gap, New Core, and Old Core alike, some of the biggest questions surrounding economic connectivity have to do with energy. Behave well, and the necessary foreign investments flow. But behave badly, and you've got a lot of stuff in the ground that maybe you won't be able to move, much less sell.

Bolivia's investment climate sucks, and so its energy wealth goes untapped. Russia's government is behaving badly, and so global investors are rethinking their positions. China and Japan step back from their anger for a moment, and realize that maybeójust maybeóit makes more sense to pool their money and split the shared energy proceeds.

It was great to play The New Map Game so intimately around the subjects of people, money, energy and security. By not just playing a security game, ever player and every team saw a much bigger and more comprehensive board game, and the resulting play was one helluva lot more realistic as a result.